WEBINAR: Thursday, August 20 at 12:00pm EDT
Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline and proposed tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac threaten the Great Lakes, while primarily serving Canada. In July, the Tribal and environmental coalition earned a significant victory when the Michigan Supreme Court vacated a required state permit for the tunnel project. Meanwhile, additional state and federal permit processes continue to play out, as the Line 5 issue shapes the important November election.
Join Flow Water Advocates and Oil & Water Don’t Mix on August 20 at Noon for a live webinar, A Deep Dive on Line 5, as we unpack what it all means, what happens next, and how you can help get oil out of the Great Lakes.
Our expert panel includes:
- Riyaz Kanji, founding member and Directing Attorney of Kanji & Katzen – representing the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Flow Water Advocates
- Debbie Chizewer, Managing Attorney, EarthJustice
- David Holtz, Oil & Water Don’t Mix Campaign Coordinator and member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors
Hosted and moderated by Flow executive director Liz Kirkwood.
About the panelists
Riyaz Kanji, Founding Member and Directing Attorney, Kanji & Katzen
Riyaz Kanji is a founding member of Kanji & Katzen, PLLC, a firm whose mission is to advance Tribal sovereignty. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School, Riyaz served as a law clerk to the late Honorable Betty Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court. He is an advisor to and vocal cheerleader for the Tribal Supreme Court Project. Riyaz represents Tribes at all levels of the federal court system, and was part of the team that argued and won the decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma vindicating the continued existence of the Muscogee Creek Reservation. Riyaz served as lead attorney for Flow Water Advocates in its recent successful appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, FLOW v. MPSC, which vacated the Line 5 tunnel permit issued by the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Debbie Chizewer, Managing Attorney, EarthJustice
As the managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Chicago office, Debbie Chizewer has built a Midwest team and a docket of cases across three program areas — climate and energy, healthy communities, and wild lands and wildlife. This team’s work includes representation of Tribal Nations in the fight against the risky Line 5 oil pipeline and advocacy on behalf of Black, low-income communities facing disproportionate environmental harms from air and water pollution. Throughout her career, Debbie has advocated for environmental protection across many issues — fighting for environmental justice in the Midwest at Northwestern Law’s environmental law clinic, promoting Great Lakes health at the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and protecting wildlife and public lands in the Rockies for the National Wildlife Federation. Debbie graduated from Princeton University and Boston University School of Law. After graduation from law school, she clerked in the U.S. District Court in the District of Delaware.
David Holtz, Coalition Coordinator for Oil & Water Don't Mix and Member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors
David’s passion for environmental protection, social justice and belief in people-powered political change led him to become a Sierra Club volunteer and in 2013 join the campaign to shut down Enbridge’s dangerous Line 5 oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. He currently serves as coalition coordinator for Oil & Water Don’t Mix. David is a member of the national Sierra Club Board of Directors where he serves on the board’s Executive Committee. For more than a decade David worked as a newspaper reporter and is a former senior aide to a Member of Congress from Michigan. David was a founding board member of the nonprofit communications hub, Progress Michigan, and served as its executive director from 2010 to 2013 and is the former Michigan Director for Clean Water Action. He is a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran.
